The Gates Ave. Knitters meet at the Long Hill Township Library. Arlene Kaplan, one of the founding members, is standing at the right.

Last Wednesday was a vacation day for me. I’ll be taking a lot of Wednesdays off between now and Christmas, so don’t be surprised if you see me in a yarn store or knitting group somewhere.

Wednesday nights, I’m often in church, but this week, I played hooky and visited the Gates Avenue Knitters at the Long Hill Township Library. They meet the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, except in November, they won’t meet the night before Thanksgiving.

Arlene Kaplan, whom I met at Down Cellar during one of the open knitting sessions, had invited me to come to the Wednesday meeting. She said they started with just five people nine-and-a-half years ago, and today they have a roster of 45. Of course, not everyone comes to every meeting, but they had a healthy group of more than 20 when I was there.

Arlene had a contest to see who could come close to guessing how many hats had been made and handed in for charity. Here she is reading off the guesses. The winner got a cute retractable tape measure.

This is a group of women who enjoy each other’s company and who have all different skill levels. A few crochet, but most of them knit. They have pooled their resources to make more than 275 hats for charity this fall, and they have created other garments, such as sweaters and blankets (are blankets garments?) that will be on display at the Long Hill Township Library during the month of November.

Some of the kintters and crocheters working side by side.

Although the group is based in Long Hill Township, the group has members from all over. Long Hill is one of those towns that everyone wants to claim is in their area: It’s in a corner of Morris County, but it’s sandwiched between Union and Somerset counties, and Long Hill people have ties to all three counties.

This woman had just finished crocheting this blanket. I want to say it was for a grandchild, but I'm not sure.

Before there was one big regional multiple listing service, Realtors used to go crazy listing home in Long Hill with the Summit Board of Realtors, the Somerset County board and the Morris County board. And the township is sort of shared territory between the Courier News (Somerset County) and the Daily Record (Morris County). It’s always been like that.

We had the tables in a circle. Veronica, the woman I spent the most time with, had on a red sweater and she's at the far right, behind the woman with the red sweater and red hat.

I spent much of the evening with Veronica, a grandmother who has recently gotten back to knitting and who is making a hat with flaps for her granddaughter. Just between you and me, Veronica looks too young to be the grandmother of a teenager, but maybe I think that because I didn’t get to be a mom until I was 35.

I was a very poor reporter Wednesday night, but hey, I was on vacation. I didn’t get names of all the people. I didn’t ask everyone what they were making. I didn’t chat people up and find out why they joined the group or how many hats they made.

The other Pam at the meeting is this woman with the navy blue shirt and the blanket on her lap.

I didn’t even ask them if they were personally displaying anything at the library in November. But I did have a great time. They’re a terrific group, and I even met another woman named Pam. If you’re looking for a group to knit with, you’d definitely be welcome.

The Gates Ave. Knitters and Crocheters, 7 to 9 p.m, second and fourth Wednesday of the month. There will be no meeting the night before Thanksgiving.

A preview of some of the finished objects that will be on display at the library.

The Long Hill Township Library, 917 Valley Road, Gillette section of Long Hill.

Work on display at the Library through November.

For information about their hats for charity project, contact Arlene Kaplan at adkap1@verizon.net.

Article printed from In Stitches: http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/institches